Newspaper Page Text
Augusta News-Review - January 17, 1974, Page 2
Augusta News-Review - January 17, 1974,
■Walking I
With II
■ Dignity ■
I by Al Irby F J
IS CAPITALISM AND THE FREE ENTERPRISE PHILOSOPHY
ON THE BRINK OF FAILURE? ALL THE VARIATIONS OF
CAPITALISM ARE HAVING TROUBLES. THERE IS A
PREVALENT THOUGHT PROJECTED BY THOSE WHO
OPPOSE CAPITALISM THAT IS BASICLY MARXIST IN
ORIGIN, IT CONTENDS “THAT CAPITALISM IS
INHERENTLY SELF-DESTRUCTIVE”. BUT HISTORY HAS
NOT CONFIRMED THIS APPARENT LOGIC.
But there is much food for thought in this disconcerting
charge. It is believed by many positive thinking persons that some
form of capitalism, call it what you may, amerliorative or welfare
capitalism, will continue to exist and extend its hegemony.
Capitalism has the built-in capability, if its citizens portray
integrity and fair-lay for all, rich and poor. One of its weaknesses
is the inability to distribute workable incomes, and social services.
Os all the elements of knowledge gained in the past, none is so
radically challenging to the social theorists, as the turn of events
in the conditions that confront the free enterprise nations. Had
anyone in the 1930 s been told that the United States would
surpass a trillion dollars-effectively doubling the real per capita
income, within the lifespan of the majority of the population
now alive, they would have sworn you were an idle dreamer.
Because of this affluent stance it would have been safe to
predict an era of unheard of social peace and good-will. Yet
inspite of the economic and technological advancement, there has
not been any worthwhile social harmony established. Sweden,
England, and the Netherlands, all countries in which real living
standards have vastly improved, and in which special efforts have
been made to lessen the economic and social unrest between
classes, but to no avail.
This inability of the various capitalistic countries to provide for
social tranquility within their borders, give credence to
uncertainly with regard to the future. To name some of the
glaring evidences of social deteriorations are the drug culture, the
loud cries for youthful participatory democracy, alienation of
students, the sexual morality, and the retreat to the life of
communes by many middle-class young people. None of this
permissiveness is compatible or supportive of patterns on which
capitalism traditionally has flourished.
THE POLARIZATION OF CAPITALISM-With the global
erosin of capitalism, there are emerging other sub-systems that
may revitalize the Free Enterprise system. It has been learned
recently that capitalism is not homogeneous, but rather a family
of systems, with varied political and economic structures.
The big Japanese corporations, the Black slavery of South
Africa, and the welfare system of powerful organizations, such as
aircraft and co-operate farming in the United States are a few of
the conditions that are sapping the original vitality of the free
enterprise that made this nation great.
POLLUTION-GENERATING OUTPUT-Techology has all
along been the ultimate aim of capitalism It was all roses, when
the struggling free enterprise systems were depending upon man
and child power, there was never any fear of over-production or
unemployment for that matter. But when technology took over,
that opened the doors for numerous problems, but the greatest of
these is pollution.
The Western World’s survival depends upon some world-wide
know-how to check pollution. It is not certain by experts
whether drastic limitations on production will infact be
imperative; that will depend largely on abilities to develop
adequate technologies that will detoxificate certain effluents,
such as recycling of scarce materials, and the efficient usage of
low-grade minerals.
SOCIAL SERVICES ARE THE KEY ISSUE-It seems quiet
likely, that within the lifespan of the present generation a degree
of social participation of some level, and composition of
production, that will exceed anything now known in capitalistic
management.
It is highly problematical how the basic institutions of the
capitalistic make-up, such as private ownership of resources and
plants will react to such innovation. There is another problem of
great concern to capitalism. As the general level of affluence rises,
there is a corresponding slow decline in the search for
employment. Already in the United States there are large
numbers of unemployed, including young people, Blacks and
women.
It is really a victory for a society to reach a great level of
prosperity in which its workers no longer are forced to accept
whatever dispensations the employers offer. But we must not
forget the price that had to be paid for such social victory. That
price, very simply, is a vastly increased risk of social breakdown.
The great danger by organized labor is the urbanized work
stoppages, which expose millions of people to great suffering.
When strikes of garbage men have left city populations exposed
to all kinds of illness; and school teachers have allowed children
to run the streets, because those who should be high-class
professionals, elect the gut climate of unions. What then will
provide the social discipline once exerted by the hard pressure of
necessity? There will have to be a great deal of appealing to
conscience and to patriotism, or the bribery for higher wages.
Then there are other stronger alternatives, such as the
intervention of public agencies, the use of troops, the outright
militarization of labor all of these are mere possibilities. These
tactics have all been used on more than one occasion, and it
cannot be predicted which measures will be used in the future, or
by which nations; or wliat will be the damage to civil liberties,
nor how the union movement will react. But it is almost certain
as the industrial societies move to ever higher levels of affluence,
the economic pressures of the Marketplace, cannot provide the
necessary labor contentment. <•
The problems now facing the families of capitalism is the same
as that facing the countries of socialism that rest upon an
economic base of public ownership and planning. Two such
problems stand out. One has to do with the common technologies
that are used by all industrial societies, capitalist or socialist. For
instance, there is one and only one way of making steel, electric
power and cloth; and there are considerable variation in
production techniques can be observed from one country to the
other. When all is said and done in all industrial countries, they
have one thing in common; they are organized to achieve a more
or less continuous flow of outputs. This, in turn, certainly
requires a continuous flow of inputs that usually call for a form
of mass production. Another problem that must be solved is the
increasing necessity to establish effective social controls over the
generation, and application of science and technology in the daily
lives of us all.
LEAF THROUGH THE PAGES OF THIS SECTION
.. . SEE WHAT OUR SPIRITED MERCHANTS
HAVE IN STORE FOR YOU!
Page 4
TOBE
EQUAL H9'/
. BY VERNON E. JORDAN, JR. £/
GAS AND THE SCHOOLS
By now it is obvious to all that the energy crisis is an
all-purpose alibi, eagerly grasped at by anyone with an axe to
grind.
Perhaps the most blatant attempt to use the energy crisis as a
means of squirming out of something that has to be done was
seen in the attempt to amend the proposed Emergency Energy
Act to forbid gasoline allocations for public school busing.
The attempt was shelved, but it is likely to come up again later
this month when the Act is reconsidered. Passage would not only
not save gas but would also be a constitutional challenge to the
courts and hamper the peaceful desegregation of schools that has
already taken place.
A premise of the gas ban is that school buses are burning up
gobs of fuel, transporting kids for purposes of integration. But
that’s not true - not true at all.
First, busing for integration represents a tiny fraction of all
school busing - less than three percent of all bused students.
Those yellow buses are on the streets to transport children who
live too far to walk to school, who are handicapped, or who need
transport to extracurricular activities. Nearly half of all school
children ride the yellow bus, and not for integration, either.
Second, how much gasoline is consumed? The government
estimates that school busing for all purposes comes to - get this -
eight ten-thousandths of one per cent of all the gasoline used in
the country for all purposes.
Since busing to desegregate is such a tiny fraction of all busing,
the amount of gasoline used for that purpose is infinitesimal -
you’d need a computer to figure those kinds of fractions.
So the issue of saving gas is an easily-seen-through phony
attempt to kill desegregation efforts. But it is still a serious
constitutional threat to the power of the courts to protect the
constitutional rights of citizens.
It tries, in an indirect way, to nullify standing court orders.
The Supreme Court has already ruled that busing is a legitimate
tool to desegregate segregated schools and an act of Congress that
challenges such rulings, even in such an apparently neutral way,
raises serious constitutional problems and confrontations.
There seems to be no shortage of energy among the defenders
of segregated schools to try to overturn the consequences of the
two-decade-old High Court ruling that segregation violates the
14th Amendment guarantees of equal protection of the laws.
If they’d apply the same energy to making integregated
schooling work we’d all be much better off. For the fact is that it
does work; where it has been given a chance there has been a
marked improvement in race relations among students and better
education, as well.
The only real purpose served by those who would use the
energy shortage as an alibi to sabotage desegregation is to plant
the weeds of doubt among those school districts that have
reluctantly moved to desegregation.
And the sudden concern for saving gas doesn’t extend to
private school busing, especially those segregation academies that
have sprouted up all over the South to siphon off white students
from newly-integrated schools.
It’s been clear for some weeks now that the energy crisis is
being used to rationalize all sorts of discriminatory proposals that
leave poor people holding the bag and now, it seems that it is the
turn of Black children seeking a decent education to bear the
burdens of racially-inspired attacks on their rights.
I’ve just re-read my copy of the Constitution and I find
nothing there that says a citizen’s rights may be compromised
because there is a shortage of gasoline. Desegregation is now a
constitutionally-protected right and, gas or no gas, it has to go
forward.
E SUBSCRIBE
| TODAY
Hl THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW
I P. O. BOX 953 AUG ifSTA, GEORGIA 30903
NAME
ADDRESS
OTf
One year (in county)ss.oo
One year (out of county)s6.oo
■ A 5 years (in County)s2o.oo
|g| 5 years (out of county)s2s.oo
►! ffiESTv
►I WHL
J V 4
Uti z/z/z/zzr >
1 II
The Essence Os Black Augusta
By Augustus Miller
We should take pride in memories of the past, events of today,
and make preparations for the future. Many of our young Black
youth today really don’t know what brotherhood and Black
Power are, or where these terms came from. However, all of them
know that they are here. They (Black Power, Brother, Soul) are
concepts of today and Black togetherness will carry on to future
generations. The young Black youths are justified in asking,
“Where did this Black pride come from?” For this information,
the essence of Augusta is centered in the Black community.
There are many untold stories about Augusta’s Black people,
places, and things. Some of these are written, some are oral, and
there are many, many examples. Some of those written include
the life stories of many of Augusta’s Blacks. Some of those told
seem to be unbelievable. Some of the places and things controlled
by Blacks could serve only as an inspiration to those persons who
don’t know and are simply misinformed.
This column intends to give information about the Essence of
Blacks in Augusta and will present some detailed information
about the original Soul Brothers and Soul Sisters of this city.
The story of Black Augusta must be told to the young, gifted,
and Black.
THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY
Mallory K. MHlandar Editor and Publisher
Mailing Address: Box 963 Augusta, Ga. Phone 722-4666
Second Class Postage Paid Augusta, Ga. 30901
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Payable in Advance
One Year in Richmond County ..... $5.00 tax ipcl.
6 Months $2.50 tart ind.
Ohe Year elsewhere $6.00 tax incl.
ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT
Classified Advertising Deadline 12 noon on Tuesday
Display Advertising Deadline 12 noon On Tuesday
News Items Printed Free
In making friends, remem
ber these words from the
Bible: “He who walks with
wise men become wise; but
the companion of fools shall
suffer harm.'”
||H|. L® Rlli
'' 1 WMfcSh'. vVvs •
- aL
MIL *
w llilliSiM
/' # 11'
■ /■•' '
jj
... -.. Wli
ft W MUST BECOME INVOLVE# IN THE WELFARE N
|| OF THE SLACK COMMUNITY.
The Energy Crisis
-Getting jflH
Smart Ms|
BY WALTER L. SMART
txecutive Director
National Federation of Settlements
and Neighborhood Centers
A recent issue of THE
DEVELOPMENT FORUM, a
publication of the Center for
Economic and Social
Information at the United
Nations, stated that the
shrillest energy outcry came
from industrial cuntries.
However, the severest impact
of the energy shortage is likely
to be felt by the developing
world; at least, by those
nations that do not produce
their own energy supplies. That
is some 75 countries, or about
% of all the nations in the
world.
While the statement made
by THE DEVELOPMENT
FORUM can be held to be
generally true, it’s almost
certain that the poor and
minorities within the United
States will suffer
disproportionately in the
energy crisis.
We realize that there arc
opportunists who will take
advantage of any crisis. Those
in our society who would
thwart the attainment of equal
rights, equal educational
opportunities, and the like are
now seizing on the energy crisis
as a convenient tool to advance
their racist objectives. The U.S.
House of Representatives, by a
vote of 221 to 192, voted to
curb the use of gasoline to
transport children beyond their
neighborhood schools.
The sponsor of the new
anti-busing bill was
Representative John Dingell,
Democrat of Michigan.
Michigan, by the way, was the
state made notorious, by adults
burning school buses to
prevent the transportation of
school children in an effort to
integrate the schools. This was
in Pontiac, Michigan.
A number of staunch
defenders of the Constitution,
notably Congresswoman Bella
Abzug, put up a stiff fight
against the bill. To add insult
to injury the House voted to
rebuke Congresswoman Abzug
for using language which was
“unparlimentary”.
Congresswoman Abzug
suggested that the amendment
sponsor, Representative John
Dingell, had been racist and
demagogic. Representative
Robert Bauman, (R.-MD),
demanded that her words be
stricken from the record.
Representative Bauman was
protesting that she had
impugned Mr. Dingel’s motives.
Thus, Speaker of the House,
Carl Albert, ruled that her
comments had constitued
unparlimentary language and
ordered that her words be
stricken. This marked the first
time in a decade that a House
Member’s comments were
challenged and subsequently
stricken.
Representative Parren
Mitchel, (D-MD), reported an
incident in which a Black child,
ostracized by her white school
mates, asked her teacher, “Why
do they hate us so?” Mr.
Mitchell went on to say, “That
question could well be asked
on the floor of the House
today.”
We, the public, should not
be surprised that the forces of
segregation, discrimination *4d
unequal opportunities within
the United States continue to
struggle to maintain a
supremacy of one race over
others. The struggle for human
decency and equitable
treatment for all is an unending
one and requires continued
vigilance by all men and
women of goodwill lest we see
our hard won victories slip
away through lethargy and
apathy on our part.